Kannur University row: Kerala HC stays appointment of CPM leader’s wife, seeks reply from Governor, UGC

The court acted upon a petition moved by one Joseph Skaria, an applicant to the said post, who was the top scorer on various parameters, except in the interview. Skaria in his petition had pointed out that the University had violated the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms in appointing Priya Varghese.

The appointment of Varghese had led to the flareup of the tension between Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and Kannur V-C Dr Gopinath Ravindran. Khan had stated that he would look into all “illegal appointments” in the University.

Talking to the media in Delhi last week, Khan had said he would order a “full-fledged probe into nepotism in appointments in various universities” in the state. “Right from the professor down to the lower staff, they want to have people who are related to them. Now, I will initiate a full-fledged inquiry to know how many such appointments have been made in the last 2-3 years,” Khan had said.

Before that Khan had put on hold the appointment of Varghese and also sought an explanation from Ravindran.

Higher Education Minister R Bindu had said that the state government was not involved in making appointments in the varsities and only the universities can do that and that too as per the law and the regulations regarding the same.

In a related development, Congress-led Opposition petitioned the Governor, seeking a probe into all appointments taken place in universities in the state during the CPM rule in the last six years. Opposition leader V D Satheesan, in a letter to the Governor, said the government had destroyed the universities by making illegal appointments.

– With inputs from PTI